The Appleseed Cast

In 2001, the Kansas quartet The Appleseed Cast made a seminal departure from their hard-driving, heavily distorted sound by released a double LP called Low Level Owl Volumes One and Two. The album received unanimously high accolades for its stirring and accessible melodies, its tumbling, murmuring vocals, its brilliantly on-point drums and ambient keyboard breaks  all of which, woven together, created a cohesive, hypnotizing and emotionally-loaded tapestry of sound. It effectively transformed The Appleseed Cast from another late 90s post-rock outfit to an instantly likeable, even groundbreaking band. Since then, theyve undergone some changes in their lineup and released a few solid full-lengths, but none have yet lived up to the prestige of Low Level Owl. Perhaps thats why tonight theyll be revisiting the album, performing both LPs back to back. Its going to be, in a word, epic. ERIN K. THOMPSON